The Path to Becoming The Graceful Assassin
by Xarona
Summary: Find out the true story of the boy who would become No. 11 amongst the Organization. The boy with a strong heart, Lumaria, replaced with the Nobody without a heart, Marluxia. The storyline of Lumaria was made using  research and my imagination. Comment


Lumaria's Story Ch. 01

The boy was 11 years old and lived peacefully with his mother Dahlia. Dahlia and her son, Lumaria lived alone in the vast world of Radiant Garden. Dahlia was a strong but petite woman. She was had very light brown hair that stretched down her back, she was very tan from being outside a majority of the time, and had strong thin arms. Lumaria had a slight frame, with shaggy light pink hair that grew wildly past his neck. He had deep blue eyes and was considered handsome yet feminine by many of the children his age.

They lived in a simple, modest wooden cabin. The dwelling itself had five rooms, though these rooms were scarcely used. Dahlia made a living as a gardener and sold her beautiful flowers and crops to farmers and florists alike. No other person seemed to put as much heart into gardening as much as she did; it was one of her only passions and hobbies. The only other thing she cared about was her flowers and her son. Lumaria also had a knack for gardening, as he had been tending to the flowers since he could walk. However, this also caused him to be considered _different_ from the other boys his age, and was often teased and made fun of. Being teased his entire life, Lumaria was a rather cold and uncaring boy, he preferred to be alone tending flowers, and this is how he spent much of his boyhood, until _visitors from another world_ came.

The three came at about the same time, they all dressed alike and used a key-like weapon. The first one was tall and muscular, with medium brown hair that was spiked on top to form somewhat of a faux-hawk. The second, being a younger, smaller boy with medium length blonde hair that was very wild. He always seemed to be in a good mood. The third was an older girl in her late teens with, Blue hair, and the most beautiful blue eyes. Monsters had started roaming Radiant Garden since only a small time before they showed up. Dahlia had insisted that Lumaria stay inside the cabin until it became safe; Lumaria would still sneak out when his Mother was asleep to go be alone with the flowers.

He had thought that as long he was quiet and didn't draw attention to himself that the monsters wouldn't find him. They however, sensed a strong aura from Lumaria and thus were naturally drawn to him. Lumaria was tending to the prized roses, when he felt another presence directly behind him. It was a small, teal creature with the shape of a small person, but with over-exaggerated spikes and small, red, triangular slits for eyes. The creature was extremely fidgety and without any warning leaped in the air to pounce on Lumaria. The boy had no time to react and the little devil had him pinned down with an inhuman strength and a very dark aura. Lumaria froze, and shut his eyes waiting for the death blow that would end his life, but it never came as he felt the weight on his chest disappear.

The boy peered through his eyes at the boy standing before him. "Wow, that was a close one, what are you doing out here?" the blonde meddler asked. Lumaria merely stared at the boy mumbled a curt "thank you" and began to walk away. "Wait, I need to ask you something!" the blonde one said. Lumaria turned around and faced the blonde one and waited on the rest of the sentence. "Well, first things first; My name's Ventus (but you can call me Ven) have you seen two other people named Terra and Aqua?" If "Ven" was referring to the other two who had come at about the same time. he assumed their names were Terra and Aqua. Lumaria barely whispered "I saw them pass by the old wizards last time I saw them, so they might still be there…" Ven immediately called out "Thank you!" as he went running off towards Merlin's house. While Lumaria had been cold and timid towards the stranger, he felt a warm gratitude towards him for saving his life. He could never forget that face, the cheerful blonde who had saved his life. He had a feeling that would not be the last time they met. Weeks passed, and one day the monsters just vanished from Radiant Garden. He never heard from Ventus again and slowly began to get back to his usual routines and hobbies throughout the days.

On a rare occasion, Lumaria had been lying in his bed in the middle of the day, pondering where Ven had gone. Dahlia had been out, It was harvest season and she had taken her sickle with her to help collect the bounty and it had started to become very late in the day and she still hadn't returned. Lumaria and became increasingly worried. He decided to head out into the fields to see what was impeding his mother's return. Lumaria trudged along until he found his Mother collapsed around the grain stalks.

She was bleeding profusely through a rip in her stomach and was breathing heavily. She was semi-conscious enough to say to Lumaria, "run…" A dark form materialized a few feet in front of him. It was human shaped but it was over 30 feet tall, snake-like hair with small yellow eyes, and where his heart should have been, a huge empty void. Lumaria heaved Dahlia over his shoulder and started to run, nearly tripping on his mother's scythe. The monstrous shadow loomed ever close though and Lumaria realized that running was futile. He placed his mother gently in a bed of roses and picked up the scythe.

Lumaria rushed at the large shadow, the creature reared its arm back and nearly crushed Lumaria but he managed to narrowly dodge it. The creature left its arm in the ground, creating a dark pool around where its hand was. Choosing to ignore the pool of darkness, Lumaria jumped on its hand and ran his way up the arm; he pierced the creature with the scythe and managed to severely wound it. The creature repelled Lumaria using powers of darkness and blew him about 5 yards away. The pool of darkness that Lumaria had chosen to ignore had disappeared and in its place three small shadow-like creatures (resembling the blue fidgety creatures from before.) Lumaria rushed the three small creatures and managed to hack one of them and it disappeared. Another Shadow attempted to attack him but Lumaria was faster and destroyed it. Lumaria went to attack the third one and swiped with his scythe, but the creature expertly melted into a dark puddle in the ground and resurfaced a few feet away. Lumaria followed it carefully and delivered the killing blow.

While attending to this little diversion, the Darkside had bent over placing both his hands on the ground and pulled out a huge orb of energy. The energy had an insidious look to it and the creature dispersed the energy as he tossed it into the sky. It rained down quickly tracking down Lumaria, he was grazed a few times by the energy but none of them managed to get a solid hit on him. The perspiration on Lumaria's forehead increased as he realized he had to destroy it quickly. He darted and weaved past the energy orbs and made his way to the creature. He finally waited until he was close enough and hit one of the energy balls right at the creatures face.

It bellowed in pain, and slowly the darkness dispersed and disappeared. Lumaria's arm was bleeding through a medium sized tear from the raining energy, but other than that was completely fine. Recalling that his Mother was still severely wounded he ran over to her. Her face was an ashen grey, her eyes appeared to be glazed over and Lumaria couldn't tell that she was breathing. He tried to sling her over his shoulder but he was far too exhausted to be able to carry her. He did the only thing he could and reached under her arms and dragged her as gently as he could muster.

He had to get her back in the town before she died, an hour passed until they finally reached Merlin's house. Lumaria had never conversed with the old wizard before but knew who he was by reputation. Lumaria banged on the door and a very startled Merlin answered. "She needs help, please do what you can!" yelled Lumaria to the wizard. He rushed them inside and placed her on his rather cluttered bed. He began working such advanced curing magic, that Lumaria could see the green light emanating from the wizard's hands and around Dahlia's body. The magic did no good though as she still remained unconscious, "I'm sorry dear boy, but she appears to have already passed on" the wizard finally called.

Tears sprang to the boy's eyes as he realized he had no one else in the world, the one person who had cared about him died. Could he have saved her if he had gone earlier, or gone to harvest the grain instead of her? It was futile of him to think such thoughts; his body had become numb with heartbreak.

Over the next few weeks, Lumaria paid extra care to the roses that his mother had passed away on. He grew negligent to the crops themselves, just looking at the reaped grain stalks made him think of the death, but with the roses he saw hope. Hope that one day he would have more power so he could better protect himself and whoever else he needed to. Being only 11, Lumaria lived in poverty, only able to sell flowers. From one day to the next he struggled to figure out what his next meal would be and where it would come from, he had to learn to steal, how to manipulate, and how to get what he needed.

Five long years passed for the boy as he matured into a young man, he had grown taller, his hair longer, his shoulders broader and had perfected the art of manipulation. He had made a huge breakthrough in crossbreeding plants, these plants were very dangerous and with them Lumaria had only one goal in mind. To storm the castle in Radiant Garden and take it over, Lumaria grew tired of living in poverty and by taking over the castle he would have access their grand resources and finally be able to live without fear or stress about how he would live the next day.

One of the dangerous flowers he had bred, when thrown would explode into thousands of poisonous pollen spores and kill those within a 5 feet radius of the flower. Another would stick to your back and when left undetected would leech nutrients from your body and leave you with nothing within the hour. Lumaria made his plans to storm the castle at noon when the sun was highest in the sky and his plants would work at their maximum potential. He merely walked up the entrance of the castle and let loose his spore flowers among the unsuspecting guards. They guards were dead within minutes, when he entered the castle he immediately felt a presence that he had not felt in five years. The presence of darkness was close by, what were they hiding in this castle?

Distracted from his original plans he scoured the castle for the familiar darkness. He came to a large room in the basement of the castle, with many cages full of dark beings, the cages held the familiar little shadow-like beings and larger human shaped knights with clumsy movements. "These creatures…what are they and where did they come from?" Lumaria whispered. "That's for us to know and for you NOT to find out." Lumaria whirled around surprised by the sudden intrusion. The man standing across the room was wearing a black and white outlined outfit with a red bandanna hanging from his neck. He had his black hair tied back in a ponytail and an eye patch over his right eye, while his left eye glowed an ethereal yellow, below it a menacing scar.

Without warning the man summoned an odd arrow-gun looking weapon aimed it at Lumaria and fired. The energy blast would have gone through Lumaria's heart had he not twisted his body in an effort to dodge, it pierced through his upper ribcage and left a medium sized wound, the blast went through some muscle tissue on his left side and Lumaria could feel the warm blood pouring through. Already feeling the effects of blood loss, Lumaria attempted to distract the assailant by throwing his spore flower at him and then charging him with the scythe. "Dude, you need to chill out and give up already, you think those little flowers are going to do me in? As if." Lumaria swiped with his scythe at the mysterious gunner, but where the man once was he was no more.

He warped behind Lumaria floating in the air upside down bringing out his other arrow gun and shooting him directly in the heart. Lumaria heard the man chuckle as everything around him began to slowly fade away into darkness, he watched as his hand disappeared into the blackness and felt its choking embrace on the rest of his body. His heart was damaged and was slowly dying, all he could think was "Mother, I'm sorry I didn't….reach….you…in..time." He watched a dark form of himself separate from his body with the same heart shaped void as the one that had killed his mother as he disappeared into the darkness. Xigbar merely smirked as he watched and yelled "Alright, at least he left an interesting looking Heartless."

The man awoke, in a large 10 acre field of grain stalks. He smelled the pervading scent of roses nearby and with great effort managed to stand up and survey his surroundings. Looking down at himself, he was wearing blood-stained florist attire, his light pink hair wildly barely passing his neck onto his upper back. He suddenly recalled what had happened…and questioned why he was still alive and how did he end up here? He'd hated this field of grain for his past memories but looking at it now, he couldn't quite understand it but there was no resentment or anger that he felt. He couldn't really describe what he felt except that he was empty. Empty…all he had were the memories and nothing more.

He did however experience confusion, or what he thinks may have been what was left, he started wandering towards the scent of roses and wildflowers. Eventually he found himself staring at the bed of roses where his Mother had died, lying in her place of his memories instead was an odd weapon. It was a scythe, but…something more as well. The scythe had a long curved light green handle that extended up to the pink outlined cross at the top of the weapon which extended horizontally to form the blade of the scythe. The blade was primarily pink and the hilt of the scythe was a shiny gold. A name formed in his mind upon seeing the weapon "Graceful Dahlia." A fitting name for the weapon since it was well crafted and heavily touched upon some of the man's most important memories.

He no longer wanted to refer to himself as Lumaria, feeling as if he no longer deserved the name since he had failed time and time again. First, letting his mother die by his negligence to rescue his mother in time. Then again, by living close to poverty and his failed attempt to seize the castle in Radiant Garden, he had done nothing to make his mother proud and felt completely empty inside. He had been foolish in his schemes and had paid the price, or so he thought? Why was he still alive, yet not alive, the man had become an empty shell of what he had once been. The empty shell walked with his weapon, without a purpose and a goal wandered from field to field, gazing at his once favorite pastime. It was while gazing at the rotting pink Ericka's that he felt another presence a few feet behind him.

There were two of them, both wearing black trench coats with the same black leggings and boots. The first form had his hood up, obscuring his face from Lumaria. The other one was broader and taller than the first form. His hair was pulled back into braids which continued and were tied into one knot and then separated again, falling freely around the back of his neck. His sideburns were somewhat shaggy and curled towards his face, which vaguely resembled a cat to Lumaria. His eyebrows were also shaped strangely, they were normal except for the line that extended from above and curled towards the center of his face. His blue eyes were set into a cold stare; this man was not someone to be trifled with.

"Who are you people?" Lumaria asked, his voice low with paranoia. The skinnier one answered, "Well technically, we're Nobodies. You, me, and this guy!" The skinny one put his arm around the broader one in a friendly gesture, this did last long as the broad one merely glared at him and he took upon himself to remove the arm from his shoulder. "…Anyways, I'm Xigbar and this is one of our comrades Xaldin." Lumaria recognized Xigbar's voice as the one that had been in the castle at Radiant Garden. The one who had ended his life. Lumaria jumped back preparing for a fight, summoning Graceful Dahlia. "Ooh I remember you, man that was at least two years ago! We're not here to fight you, we're here to ask you if you would join us." "Why would I join you, you think you can fight with me and then become my best friend? And what do you mean by two years, we fought yesterday! "Lumaria knew that he should have been feeling anger right about now, but he felt calm, collected, like _nothing_.

Xaldin took it upon himself to explain Xigbar's words. "You are a Nobody, a being without a heart, you became one when Xigbar destroyed yours. However, the process of becoming one is not instantaneous. Your body travels through the realm of Darkness until it's finally able to recollect itself, in your case; two years." Lumaria listened with disbelief, what were these freaks talking about, he still had a heart…right? Lumaria put his hand up to his chest, letting it sit there for a few seconds expecting to feel the beating of his heart. Instead, there was none. He felt as if there was an empty void; he truly didn't have a heart. Lumaria was speechless and Xaldin continued, "Now you see, without a heart you are unable to feel emotions, unable to hate, feel joy, or _love_. Lumaria thought he heard a hint of disgust with that last word.

Xaldin continued "Xigbar, me and eight others are part of a group called The Organization. We are a group of Nobodies, with the intention of gaining back our hearts, our leader is a man named Xemnas and he will most surely welcome you amongst us." "We can gain back our hearts? Tell me how?" Lumaria cried. "Our Superior will tell you all you need to know about stuff like that, so wanna join us?" Xigbar said. If it meant becoming whole again, and getting rid of this feeling of emptiness then all Lumaria needed to know was where to sign.

"It is decided, I will join you in the goal of retrieving my heart." "One more thing" Xaldin replied. "Upon becoming a member of our ranks, you are given a new name." Your new name will something you must tell us, we cannot name you. All you must do is think, deep inside, your subconscious will cry out to you who you are to become." Lumaria closed his eyes and began to think deeply. In his mind, he saw a field of roses, except these roses were black and covered with thorns, concentrating more Lumaria saw one rose that stood out, it had moist, crimson blood dripping from the petals. It was then that he heard it, his new name; Marluxia.


End file.
